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Damon L. Ennett is escorted Friday from the Schuylkill County Prison to the Schuylkill County Courthouse in Pottsville.

Damon L. Ennett told a Schuylkill County judge on Friday that his lawyer pressured him into agreeing to go to prison for what prosecutors said was his role in the March 2010 murder of a Shenandoah man.

"I felt as though if I went to trial, I would be railroaded," Ennett testified before Judge Jacqueline L. Russell during a 2 1/4-hour hearing on his request to withdraw his no contest plea to third-degree murder and related charges in the death of Bruce L. Forker, 24.

However, Chief Public Defender Michael J. Stine, Ennett's former lawyer, testified that he met more than 25 times with Ennett concerning the case and that it was his client's decision not to go to trial.

Ennett, 32, of Freeland, and Stine were the only two witnesses who testified before Russell, who will decided whether to allow Ennett to withdraw his plea.

Russell made no decision at Friday's hearing, instead giving James G. Conville, Schuylkill Haven, Ennett's new lawyer, 10 days to provide any additional arguments in his client's favor and Assistant District Attorney Douglas J. Taglieri five days to respond.

Ennett pleaded no contest Nov. 28, 2011, to charges of third-degree murder, burglary and aggravated assault, with prosecutors dropping charges of conspiracy, robbery, theft and simple assault, an additional count of aggravated assault and four counts of recklessly endangering another person.

Russell accepted Ennett's plea and sentenced him to serve 13 1/2 to 27 years in a state correctional institution. Ennett is serving his sentence at SCI/Coal Township, Northumberland County.

By pleading no contest, Ennett did not admit he had committed the crimes but offered no defense to them, agreed that prosecutors had enough evidence to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and agreed to be sentenced as if he had pleaded or been found guilty.

One of his co-defendants, Jahmal Ollivirre, 22, of Reading, pleaded guilty Nov. 21, 2011, to third-degree murder, conspiracy, robbery, burglary, theft and aggravated assault, with prosecutors dropping charges of first- and second-degree murder, Russell sentenced him to serve 15 to 30 years in a state correctional institution, consecutive to one of eight years he is serving in New York.

The second co-defendant, Julius C. Enoe, 34, of Reading, was acquitted by a jury Sept. 2, 2011, of criminal homicide, conspiracy, robbery, burglary, simple assault, theft, two counts of aggravated assault and four counts of recklessly endangering another person.

State police at Frackville alleged that Ollivirre and Enoe broke into Forker's home at 333 E. Centre St. about 2 a.m. March 16, 2010, while Ennett waited in the getaway car. Ollivirre seized Forker's fiancee, Kasa Brennan, while Enoe shot Forker in the back of the head, police said.

The pair fled, taking about $5,000 in cash and Brennan's two cellphones, to the car, which Ennett drove from the scene.

On Friday, Ennett said he wanted to be sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison, which he said was what prosecutors had offered Enoe if he pleaded guilty. However, Russell told him she could not merely resentence him if she found his plea was not knowing, intelligent and voluntary.

"Your sentence would be vacated. Your plea would be vacated. You may be unhappy with the result," which could be a new trial on all charges, she said.

"That's not the relief I'm looking for," Ennett said.

"That's what the law allows," Russell said.

Handcuffed and wearing a prison jumpsuit, Ennett said Stine never explained what the preliminary hearing would entail and was unprepared for trial. That forced his hand in entering a plea, according to Ennett.

"Did you do that?" Conville asked him.

"Yes," Ennett answered.

"Did you want to do that?"

"No. I felt like I was being put in a no-win situation."

Taglieri challenged Ennett's truthfulness, emphasizing that Ennett was saying his testimony in Enoe's two trials - the first ended in a hung jury - was untrue.

"Isn't it true that you knew the commonwealth had a very strong case against you?" Taglieri said.

"No," Ennett said.

"Why would this court ever believe what you're saying about attorney Stine's representation to be true?

"This isn't the first time" he made such complaints, Ennett said.

Stine testified that he explained to Ennett exactly what the preliminary hearing was and what waiving his right to it would mean, that he prepared fully for a possible trial and reviewed the case completely with him.

He said he tried to get Ennett as short a prison sentence as possible.

"We were always trying to get the district attorney to lower the number," Stine said.

However, Stine said that after Enoe's acquittal, when he thought it would be good to approach prosecutors about seeking a better deal, Ennett no longer wanted a plea.

"He wanted to fight the case," Stine said of his client. "Mr. Ennett indicated he wasn't interested in a deal."

Stine said he prepared to try the case but Ennett changed his mind just before the trial was to have started.Defendant: Damon L. Ennett

Prison sentence: 13 1/2 to 27 years in a state correctional institution

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